The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-09-15
AN IDYL OF BAR HARBOR.

AIN LII 1LOf BAN HAKBOK.
The tall postman with the sad eve,
who was engaged to the cook we had
last fall, has just given the following
note to my maid:
NEWPORT, May TO-
DEAREST MADGE: know you will forgive
me for having left your dear letter five whole
days unanswered, when you will see by this
that you are the first TO whom break the
news of what has transformed me from girl
into a woman. for am in love, Madge, and
am to marry him sometime next month and
his name Is Reginald Dalias.haye you ever
born in New Orleans and his people live there,
but Reg has been for some years in Boston,
though he says when we are married he will
settle in New York to please me. What more
shall tell you, dear, except that l am the
proudest, happiest woman in the world, and
l am dying to hear from you.
'P ST. forgot to tell you how handsome
he is-he has the most perfect face ever saw
and his voice is music. Do write me at once,
''P. 8. again.-Reg has just come. He met
you once-at Bar Harbor, / think he said.
How glad i am you know him, for you can
congratulate me, truly. F."
You do not know what shock that
note was to me, for Florrie is the
dearest little girl l know, and she was
seventeen only last year. Know Reg
Dallasi Yes, / had that honor once.
I might, too, have had the honor of
becoming Mrs. Dallas had chosen to
commit that romantic but unenviable
hari-kori. And now Florrie!-I won-
der her foolish mother could dream of
such a thing. All, well.
Reg Dallas is just the type to be
adored by school-girl-just the man
to be summed by young woman who
has learned her anthropological A B
C's, as clever Cambridge girl said
of him at Mount Desert that year. He
has almost perfect features a straight
nose, broad, low brow, mouth firm
and clear cut, eyes of dark brown,
with jetty lashes and brow; crisp black
hair, rippling in little waves; very
white, strong teeth. but chin which
to me expressed weakness and irreso-
luton. That chin was my beacon
warning. The eye may be trained at
a mirror-we girls know that-so. too,
may the mouth; but the chin is there
and no art can change it. / have
never seen strong man with a weak,
pointed, understood chin, nor weak
man with a chin which was massive
and square. Why it is, l leave to de-
vague but interesting Mr..
Herron-Allen; but he, believe, reads
in the wrinkles and bumps
of the hands alone. / only know it is
so.
Mr.. Dallas was very chivalrous to
me from the first moment l met HIM.
Dear, fussy old Mrs. Dragomon pre-
sented him and explained to mamma
that he was one of the ineffable '.first
and had some money and
all that, but mamma happened to
know that everybody from Louisiana
whose ancestors owned Il negro before
the war is II ''first family" and calmly
refused to go into Mysteries; but had
no objection to Mr.. Dallas accom-
panying. me to Rodick's, where Lulu
was to make up the Dutch
buck board party going to Great Head
aud Somesville next. day, Before we
got fairly out of our grounds Mr.. Dal-
las began to work on my feelings with
if 1 had ever been Norway. l Ireplied
there once only, killing salmon in the
Glommen, which he said was river.
Then he paused, gazed at me intently,
averted his eyes, drew long, linger-
ing breath, and said, with a far-away
look: 81 am glad-yery glad | went to
Norway"
'.Whyp" I asked, wondering how
that long trip for a few miserable
fishes, which 1 am sure could have
been purchased much more rea-
in any market on this side,
could possibly have even the remotest
with me.
because" he replied, with another
dreamy glance, 81 else would have
found it impossible to name simile
for your eyes"
Was not this nicely calculated to
make ones pulse thrill? To meet a
''dark young man in white tiannels, !"
as the gypsies say, one minute, and
next to have him calmly relate that he
is glad he went to Norway to find a
simile for your eyes, is jnst one degree
short of a moral earthquake. But
/ didn't thrill, although /
know 7 flushed, and it made me tingle
with inward rage to see he noticed the
silly hectic and misconstrued it as a
symptom that 1 was pleased. l was
profoundly puzzled. and ] was annoyed,
but contained myself.
.sWell. and what is the simile, Mr..
Dallas?" inquired. after a moments
silence. for those horrible Joneses were
gadding by.
THAT arm of the sea running up be-
tween the granite walls guarding it
from the tempest, he replied, search
ing my face again: "clear, cold, blue
and gray commingling, infinite depth
and ealmness suggested and half re-
vealed. a power which awes and yet
charms, sweet tide ebbing and flow
ing between the bnds of summer and
the winters ice. majestic anu yet ten
der-such is the Norwegian ford, and
such-your eyes"
That is whatJack Van Tassel would
call o .'buster."
! did not smile. / have often wan
dered since why and how my sense of
the ridiculous took wing at that mo-
ment, but it did. was merely con-
scious of the fact that either Mr.. Dallas
was fool or that he thought me one.
As more complimentary to her majesty
myself, l took the former horn of the
dilemma. remarked that l thought
we were going to have rain. He
glanced upward quickly, and then at
my face.
I'll beg pardon?" he said, with a
panied, rising infection as though my
weather interruption had bruised him.
And then, seeing that the clear. blue
and-gray fiords were searching the
skies in an exceedingly prosaic way, he
consented to. be meteorological, too,
and remarked that he thought possibly
in fact, probably that-but-here
again his tropical glances took pas.
sionate plunge into the fiords-if il
should happen to rain, he had an um.
brella at Rodicl1's and. He said
this with as much empressement as
though as umbrella was some sacred
variety of shelter of which he possessed
the only specimen extant; and as
though a cyclone was about to break
loose, and his powerful arms Were
the only things between me and i'm
mediate destruction.
How comes it to pass that, thought
less and regardant only of superficial
things as we women are, there are
wonderful moments in which, like an
olden seer, we read the inmost secrets
of character, and catch swift, SURE
glimpse of our future with it. like {
scroll unfurled? All that Reginald
Dallas was and all that would know
him to be, stood out like Rembrandt
in that moment clear and vivid q,